SCS Computing and Network Facilities

Desktop Systems

Classroom

The SCS classroom is available for classes, for special training events, and for students during office hours. When not otherwise in use, the classroom systems is available for computational work using our batch scheduling system. The classroom has houses the following hardware:

• 18 Intel-based workstations and one Instructor machine running Linux and MS Windows
• A Projector
• A Visual Presenter for transparencies and solid 3d objects
• A laserjet printer

Visualization Laboratory

A major component of SCS's capabilities is the SCS Visualization Laboratory. This lab operates the following resources:

• One Silicon Graphics Onyx system with 2 pipes of Infinite Reality2E? graphics, including four 4 R12000 processors operating at 250 MHz, with 8 MB cache, 2 GB RAM, 128 MB texture memory, and 200 GB disk farm (eight of the ten disks striped pairwise for faster I/O);
• Four Dell Precision Workstations with dual monitors, able to boot into RedHat Linux or Microsoft Windows; two of these utilize the nVidia GeForce FX 5900 and two utilize the Radeon 9500 Pro, for graphic display (graphics cards updated periodically to stay close to the cutting edge);
• An additional Dell Precision Workstation;
• Several Silicon Graphics workstations.

The Visualization effort at SCS has a dedicated file server, providing over 200GB of space in a RAID5 configuration, in addition to central SCS file storage.

A key SCS Visualization feature is our 8'x16' rear-projection Powerwall, which resides in our Seminar Room. The Powerwall can be driven by the Onyx system mentioned above (through dual projectors), and is capable of stereographic display from that host; dual consoles for this system are located in the Seminar Room. The Powerwall can also be driven by a dedicated Dell Precision Workstation (through dual projectors), running RedHat Linux, complete with nVidia Quadro FX2000 graphics. Along with a separate projector (and desktop computer running Microsoft Windows) for general use, the Powerwall provides a first-class display system for teaching and presentations, and visualization research. (The Seminar Room may be reserved for classes, meetings and other events by members of the University community.)

Clusters and Computer Servers

SCS is home to a growing number of high performance computational servers and clusters. While the majority of our clusters are dedicated to specific research areas, an increasing number of machines are being made available to SCS researchers, their affiliates, and the University community. In addition, SCS is making it possible for general users to utilize "extra" compute cycles on our dedicated clusters through a variety of high throughput management tools and job schedulers.

• 190 Dual processor AMD Athlon nodes
• 64 Dual processor G5 Xserve nodes
• 16 Dual processor AMD Opteron nodes
• 8 Single processor EV6 Alpha nodes
• 4 Dual processor Intel Xeon nodes
• 4 Dual processor Sun UltraSPARC IIIi nodes

Bioinformatics Server

SCS supports a dedicated bioinformatics server with a large capacity disk array for biological databases.

• Quad Xeon server
• over 1 TB Disk array
• Redundant power supplies
• various Bioinformatic software packages including Accelrys GCG

Network and Core Computer Infrastructure

We operate approximately 30 servers for core internet services, using primarily Sun and generic Intel-compatible servers.

• electronic mail, utilizing IMAP4 and POP3 standards, with SSL security and SMTP authentication, including a web mail client, and incorporating spam and virus filtering
• a web server platform that supports both the SCS web site and "personal" sites for our users
• a primary file server platform, with over 5TB of user and research space in a RAID5 configuration, plus over 3TB of scratch space, built as a high-availability "failover" server pair
• backup of the primary file server platform using SuperDLT320 drives housed in a Quantum robotic tape library. All of this equipment is associated with a dedicated backup server.
• Domain Name Service

SCS networking is built on a Cisco backbone, providing Gigabit connectivity to a switching infrastructure and key servers. Most systems, including desktops, are connected via 100 megabit Ethernet.

SCS offices in the Dirac Science Library have (in most cases) two Category 3 lines for phones and two Category 5E lines for Ethernet over twisted pair.

Wireless connectivity is available throughout Dirac Science Library; 802.11b is fully supported, 802.11a is available in some sections, and 802.11g is planned for the future.

The SCS backbone connects to the campus backbone via dual Gigabit interfaces.

The campus-wide backbone is built primarily of Cisco equipment, using largely Gigabit Ethernet technology. The campus network joins SCS to various campus computing resources, including the Computer Science Department Sun network, the Meteorology computer systems, the Physics Department clusters, the FSU/FAMU College of Engineering networks, the National High Field Magnetic Laboratory, the Center for Oceanic-Atmospheric Prediction Studies, Academic Computing and Network Services as well as the rest of campus. The network provides access to regional, national, and worldwide networks via multiple links and providers; key interconnects include ESnet, Internet2, FIRN and Floridanet (and soon, the National and Florida Lamda Rail).

Other Facilities, Equipment and Resources

The Isotope laboratory at Florida State University and National High Magnetic Field Laboratory has all necessary equipment and facilities for chemical and isotopic analyses of various types of samples, which includes vacuum lines, a Finnigan MAT Delta S Stable Isotope Ratio Mass spectrometer, a Finnigan MAT 262RPQ thermal ionization mass spectrometer, IsoLab? 54, and a Finnigan Element ICP MS.

The Wetland Ecology Program of the Florida A&M University has a well-equipped wet chemistry laboratory dedicated to the plant and soil analysis. The laboratory is under the direction of Dr. Y. P. Hsieh. The major equipment includes: Environflow 3000 autoanalyzer for nutrient analysis of water samples, Antek C, N and S elemental analyzer, Dionex ion chromatography system, Orion automatic titration system, Autoclave, Glove-box, Distillation and diffusion apparatus for reduced sulfur analysis.

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Last changed: 22 Mar 2005